Is ‘Ropeless’ Fishing the Solution to End Fatal Entanglements for Endangered Whales?

Rob Martin, 56, fishes off his boat, the Resolve, in Cape Cod Bay. (Eve Zuckoff/CAI)

Rob Martin has been fishing from the Sandwich Marina for 29 years off his boat, Resolve.

“It’s only 40 feet. It was big when I first got it and now it seems small,” he said, while warming up inside his boat’s cabin on a cold January morning.

Over the last few decades, Martin, 56, has watched the lobster industry change and regulations increase.

In January, Massachusetts lobstermen were banned from most state waters until late spring to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales that typically spend February to May feeding in the area.

The new restrictions extend and expand an existing closure that’s long affected Martin and fellow lobstermen.

“My closure is Mass Bay,” he explained. “It’s a 3,000-square-nautical-mile closure, which encompasses all of Cape Cod Bay, all of our Outer Cape, going down off of Nantucket,” and beyond.

Read the rest of the story at CAI’s website.